This week marks the 25th anniversary of Lara Croft raiding her first tomb. On behalf of Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, Core Design, and many other talented teams who have brought Lara to life across entertainment mediums – thank you for going on 25 years of adventure with us.

While we have been celebrating this milestone all year, we saved some special announcements for today to celebrate the original launch in October 1996 – from nostalgic content to partnership news and gifts to our fans. Read on for the full scoop!

To kick off the day, we have well-wishes to our community from some familiar faces – and voices!

Happy #TombRaider25 from Lara Croft (s)

We hope you enjoyed this video tribute from some of the many women who have brought Lara Croft to life over the years. You can watch the full versions of each contributor’s clips here. To honor these women and the many other writers, voice talent, actors, models, artists, game developers, and more who have contributed to Tomb Raider over 25 years, we will be making a $25,000 donation to the International Rescue Committee – a global humanitarian aid, relief, and development organization.

An additional donation of $20,000 was made to Women for Women International in the name of Camilla Luddington as a special thank-you for the passion and phenomenal performance she brought to Lara Croft in the recent survivor trilogy (Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of the Tomb Raider). Her award-winning performances laid the groundwork for the future of Tomb Raider and the unified timeline ahead of us.

Both these excellent organizations are doing boots-on-the-ground work in Afghanistan. According to the IRC, an estimated 18 million people in Afghanistan are in urgent need of humanitarian aid, including many women and girls who often withstand the worst of political and economic unrest. We are proud to donate to and raise awareness of both these great non-profits.

From the Archives: Restored Tomb Raider Design Doc (1995)

If you’ve been following our TR25 celebrations throughout the year, you know we have spent dozens of hours raiding our physical and digital archives to uncover unreleased content to share with fans. While we have shared many of those discoveries online already, we saved a special surprise for today’s celebration.

We’re excited to share a 1995 design document from Core Design that includes early storyboards and character sketches. The document details gameplay mechanics, narrative, and even includes a forward from Lara Cruz – not yet Lara Croft. A second script treatment also included details Lara facing off against her nemesis “Karl Larsen”.

The document we uncovered was a low-quality photocopy of the original design doc, so we commissioned the super talented Kameliya Minkova – a professional concept artist and active member of our community – to clean up the illustrations and notes for us!

Some of the scenes may be familiar to fans, as they guided this initial treatment for Tomb Raider’s title screen and logo. One of the FMV boards also outlines a scene that was later cut from the final game.

You can download the entire PDF here (direct download) and browse through a piece of Tomb Raider history at your leisure.

Available Now: Tomb Raider: The Official Cookbook and Travel Guide

Just in time for our 25th anniversary celebration, Tomb Raider: The Official Cookbook and Travel Guide is now available for purchase!

The Official Cookbook and Travel Guide features over 40 recipes from the many locations Lara Croft has visited throughout her 25 years of global adventures. Also included is a historical overview of these beautiful cities and countries, and tips for travel should you want to follow in Lara’s footsteps.

When writing this book, the authors consulted with dozens of Tomb Raider fans worldwide to ensure the accuracy of both the recipes and tour tips. We extend a huge thank-you to those contributors for helping us celebrate and share their culture with other fans worldwide. Check out a video from some of these contributors sharing about the process below.

Tomb Raider: The Official Cookbook and Travel Guide – Collaborating with Fans

While the cookbook is currently only available in English, we are pleased to announce that a UK edition as well as Italian and German Editions are underway.

We hope you enjoy this book! Be sure to tag us on social to show off your culinary creations.

Tomb Raider Games Sale & PrimeGaming Giveaway

If you’re looking to revisit Lara’s past adventures – or introduce a friend to the franchise for the first time – now’s a great time to do so! Tomb Raider games sales can be found on Steam, Stadia, Humble Bundle, Green Man Gaming, GOG.com, the Square Enix E-Store, PlayStation, and the Xbox Games Store with discounts up to 89%. Head on over to any of these digital game stores and search for Tomb Raider to see what is available! available!

But that’s not all – from November 1stthrough November 14th, Crystal Dynamics and PrimeGaming are giving away Rise of the Tomb Raider on PC for free for all Prime members! To claim the free game, Prime members should visit gaming.amazon.com and select “Games with Prime” to take advantage of this offer.

Lara Croft Coming to Switch

We are so excited to announce a collaboration between Crystal Dynamics and Feral Interactive to bring Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris to Nintendo Switch starting in 2022!

These arcade-inspired, action-adventure games are a fan-favorite, combining exploration, discovery, and puzzle solving with co-op multiplayer options. We will share more information on these releases as we have them, but until then, give Feral Interactive a follow on Facebook or Twitter!

Update: Tomb Raider Reloaded

Earlier this year fans were thrilled to learn that Keeley Hawes (Tomb Raider: Legend, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Tomb Raider: Underworld, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris) would be reprising her role as classic Lara Croft in Tomb Raider Reloaded.

Square Enix London Mobile today revealed an additional treat for classic Lara Croft fans – for a limited time after launch, players will additionally be able to choose from the original three English-language voice actors, who have reprised their roles to celebrate this franchise milestone!

Shelley Blond (Tomb Raider), Judith Gibbins (Tomb Raider II, Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft) and Jonell Elliott (Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, Tomb Raider: Chronicles, Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness) recently recorded together in London, and we totally geeked out at having all three of them in one place.

Tomb Raider Reloaded iscurrently in soft launch in select countries, slated to release globally next year. Joining Lara in Tomb Raider Reloaded is a cast of fan favorite characters, including her ever-faithful butler Winston, mentor & frenemy Von Croy, steadfast friend Anaya and the mysterious Kurtis Trent. As Lara’s adventures continue, she is sure to cross paths with more allies and enemies – we can’t wait to reveal them!

For more information on Tomb Raider Reloaded, check out the Square Enix London Mobile website.

Update: Tomb Raider Anime Series

As we announced earlier this year, a new Tomb Raider anime series is coming to Netflix!  Legendary Television and Netflix are hard at work on the series, which will pick up after the events of the Tomb Raider survivor trilogy.

As previously announced, Hayley Atwell (Agent Carter, Captain America, Mission Impossible 7) will be voicing Lara Croft, joining a roster of incredibly talented women who have brought Lara Croft to life over the past 25 years.

Today, the Tomb Raider anime series’ showrunner, Tasha Huo, announced that Allen Maldonado has joined the cast as the voice of Zip, with Earl Baylon voicing Jonah Maiava. We cannot wait for you to adventure with Lara Croft as she heads into her next chapter.

Check out a quick update from Tasha below!

#TombRaider25 Netflix Anime Series Update from Tasha Huo

Experience Tomb Raider Live

Today we announced that starting in 2022, fans will have two new ways to experience the franchise in the real world.

We’re partnering with Little Lion Entertainment to create Tomb Raider: The LIVE Experience in London. This experience will give fans the opportunity to dive into the world of Tomb Raider as visitors work together in an immersive adventure, forging their own paths alongside recognizable characters from the franchise. Race against time as you help Lara Croft solve a mystery that will save the world!

But that’s not all. Making its debut in 2022, The World of Lara Croft – 25 Years of Tomb Raider exhibition curated by the Storyworld museum launches in Groningen, the Netherlands. The World of Lara Croft details the history of Tomb Raider games, showcases art and design from the franchise, and explores the pop culture appeal of Lara Croft.

Within the exhibit, attendees will find content from the original 1996 game through the most recent Survivor Trilogy. Fans can expect to learn more about design details, developer insights, merchandise over the years, and appearances of Lara Croft in movies and comics.

For more information on this amazing experience, visit Storyworld’s website.

Tabletop RPG Reveal: Lara Croft’s Tomb Raiders

We’re super excited to reveal Lara Croft’s Tomb Raiders, a tabletop adventure that lets you team up with Lara.

Lara Croft’s Tomb Raiders is a passion project of Senior Technical Designer Matthew Gaston, who has been developing it since 2007 and playtesting internally since 2009.

In Lara Croft’s Tomb Raiders, players will assume the roles of fictional characters in the mysterious world of Tomb Raider. These characters work for Lara Croft, who has more leads to follow than she has time to follow them.

Players will explore ancient sites to discover information and artifacts – guided by the campaign’s Raid Master. Campaigns will focus on knowledge, language, and investigative skills in addition to action-oriented skills to keep it true to the franchise roots.

Pulling from our talented community, we have brought on professional concept artist Kameliya Minkova and concept/comic artist Johann BLAIS to tackle interior art for the RPG. A full reveal of the cover art by Brenoch Adams will be revealed later, but you can find a sneak-preview of the interior below to hold you over.

Get your raiding team ready – the core rule book and the first adventure: Lara Croft’s Tomb Raiders: Mark of the Phoenix will be released later this year as a holiday gift to our fans.

Tomb Raider 25 Digital Sticker Pack

In another free treat for fans, we teamed up with the uber-talented Jeff Victor to design a pack of 40+ digital stickers that represent Lara Croft’s legacy over 25 years. The set is designed around popular emojis so that you’ll have a sticker for every situation. Accidentally burn down your family estate?

The sticker pack will be available on the iOS store  later today as “Tomb Raider 25 Sticker Pack.”  We hope to bring this pack to other mobile platforms in the future.

As an additional treat, we asked Jeff to create a tribute to Lara Croft in his popular “Evolutions” series, which you can see below and download as desktop/mobile wallpapers here.

Here at Crystal Dynamics, we believe strongly in the power of giving back to the community and we have several charity initiatives underway in honor of the 25thanniversary of Tomb Raider. In addition to the donations to the International Rescue Committee & Women for Women detailed above, we have two exciting projects in the works.

Coming Soon: Tomb Raider 25 Reimagined Art Sale

Throughout the rest of 2021, we are continuing to reveal our Tomb Raider 25 box art redesigns by talented artists from around the world. At the end of this year, we will host a charity initiative through the Square Enix Store to make the full set of 15 prints available to purchase. All proceeds will go to Girls Make Games, which offers summer camps, workshops and game jams designed to inspire the next generation of designers, creators, and engineers.

Check out our current set of prints and download your favorite for desktop and mobile usage on our official Flickr.

More info on the sale to come!

Extra Life Auctions

On November 6th, we will be participating in a 24-hour charity drive for Extra Life, which will raise funds for local San Francisco Bay Area UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals. Crystal Dynamics will be donating $25,000 to kick off the celebration, with a goal of raising an additional $25,000 during the event.

Over a dozen eBay for Charity auctions will go live later today, featuring rare items from Tomb Raider history. All proceeds will go directly to the hospitals and count towards our fundraising total.

We will have more information on the Extra Life streaming schedule next week!